The Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel won his first Paris-Roubaix solo on Sunday April 9, the fourth Monument of his career, at the end of an eventful 120th edition marked by the bad luck of Wout Van Aert, third.
By winning his first Parix Roubaix, Mathieu van der Poel has once again got the upper hand over his best enemy, the Belgian Wout Van Aert, who fails in third place on the podium.
The race tipped in favor of the rider from Alpecin in the Carrefour de l’Arbre, 16 km from the finish, when Van Aert went on the attack, before puncturing the rear wheel. This dramatic turn of events benefited Van der Poel, the only one to have managed to follow the Belgian in the royal breakaway made up of seven riders, including the main favourites.
The 28-year-old Dutchman then flew to victory and was able to savor his triumph at the Roubaix velodrome, where he won 46 seconds ahead of his teammate, the Belgian Jasper Philipsen, and Van Aert.
Alpecin Double
” It’s extraordinary, especially to enter the track alone. We do 1 and 2 with Jasper. We’re really going to celebrate it tonight, because it may never happen again. I am having the best season of classics of my career. It’s incredible “said Van der Poel who won under the eyes of his mother Corinne Poulidor.
This is the fourth victory for Raymond Poulidor’s grandson in one of the five Monuments, the biggest classics on the calendar, after the Tour of Flanders in 2020 and 2022, and Milan-Sanremo in 2023.
He also finished second in the Tour of Flanders last Sunday.
The race, contested under a beautiful spring sun, was marked by many crashes, including those which led to the abandonment of the defending champion, Dylan van Baarle, and the former triple world champion Peter Sagan.
Van der Poel, just before taking off for victory, himself caused the fall of the German John Degenkolb in the breakaway.
► To read also: Cycling: Mathieu van der Poel, back to the fore
(With AFP)